Sue & Tony’s Malta

Valletta, Malta

An Overview

Evening down at Kalkara Marina

This itinerary for our Malta stopover had been developed under the watchful eye of Sue & Tony, Maltaphiles and knowledgeable sailing enthusiasts!  We are truly appreciative as it would be quite possible to spend weeks on Malta (without covering the same ground), so together with the DK Top Ten Guide, we were organised.

We had also decided to take the fast ferry to Malta rather than sail.  Time (Schengen time) was not on our side to spend the necessary weeks to undertake this venture by cruising.  Before leaving Syracuse, we also moved WJ3 into the Syracuse Marina for safety & securtiy's sake.  

Our initial visit plan for Malta over our 5 night stay was to spend a day each in:

• Valletta
• Birgu
• Rabat & Msida
• Ancient Sites - Temples & the Hypergium

Valletta Defensive Walls

We later modified this in the knowledge that our bus from Kalkara to the Valletta Bus Terminus took 30 minutes, and all buses beyond Valletta moved at a speed dictated by tourist season traffic and modest roads.  Schedules, even in Kalkara were hard to predict, so we learned to be patient, very patient.

We also found useful information on Cruisers Wiki, MySailing and Noonsite. (Ed Note 2024: The Wiki has not been updated for years. Noonsite has been sold (2008) and is now behind a membership wall.)  

View into Grand Harbour

Now then, time for some history; no groaning, please!  The Knights of St John were founded in the 11^th c in Jerusalem as an Order of Chivalry.  They were organised by chapters according to country of origin, were of noble birth and presided over by a Grand Master.  By the 13^th c, the Knights, after the fall of Jerusalem, moved to Rhodes establishing it as an island fortress.  After the Ottomans then ousted the Knights from Rhodes in 1522, Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, offered them a home on Malta (for an annual payment of a Maltese Falcon).  The Ottomans again attacked.  After successfully repelling them in the Great Siege of 1565, the Knights committed to some dramatic reconstruction of their fortified island home.  Malta finally fell to the French (under Napoleon who ransacked the place) in 1798 and to this day the Knights of St John remain stateless. Charitable and religious work is now the primary function of this Catholic Order.